INDONESIA is seeking to expand trade with Myanmar, said Mr Edy Putra Irawady, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade Affairs. (more…)

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese government has told domestic NGOs not to give aid to Kachin war refugees who fled to KIO areas along the Sino-Burma border after the outbreak of war, according to a Kachin refugee relief committee official. (more…)

New Delhi – Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will visit the Martyrs’ Mausoleum on Tuesday with her youngest son Htein Lin to pay homage to fallen Burmese martyrs including her father Aung San, the hero of independence. (more…)

Burmese government troops have launched a large-scale attack including mortar shells against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at the hydropower dam site in Momauk Township,  Kachin State, northern Burma. (more…)

A talk on poverty by U Myint, the economic advisor to Burma’s President Thein Sein, that was scheduled to take place at the headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon on Monday, has been cancelled at the last minute, NLD sources said. (more…)

This police handout photo shows Aung Myo Zin, who police say murdered a 32-year-old lawyer on May 12. (more…)

Yangon – A helicopter serving Myanmar’s offshore gas industry crashed Monday, killing three people, an industry source said. (more…)

Southeast Asia’s _ and probably the world’s _ most revered female political icon reached out to the region’s newest female political icon when Aung San Suu Kyi extended her congratulations last week to Yingluck Shinawatra, who is set to become Thailand’s first female prime minister after the Pheu Thai Party’s decisive victory in last Sunday’s general election. Mrs Suu Kyi, who was in the ancient Burmese city of Pagan, noted that Ms Yingluck is a woman who was chosen to be the leader of a nation in a fair democratic election. The same can be said of Mrs Suu Kyi, although of course she was prevented by the military from taking her role after her National League for Democracy Party won an overwhelming victory in 1990. (more…)

Yun Sun [eve_sun79@hotmail.com] is foreign policy analyst in Washington DC and will be a visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. She was a Beijing-based China analyst for the International Crisis Group from 2008-2011. (more…)